


Key Component

by lha



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Angst, M/M, Post Ep S3: E12 There Is A Tide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:02:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28481349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lha/pseuds/lha
Summary: **SPOILERS*** For S3:E12 There Is A TideCharles Vance and Paul Stamets have a conversation after he's retrieved.
Relationships: Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets, Paul Stamets & Adira
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Key Component

Charles Vance stood to the side of the bustling sickbay and watched the man hunched over his holographic display, working furiously. He had seen the reviews of all of the Discovery crew that had been completed shortly after their arrival and had met most of the senior officers but he was struggling to see the Lieutenant Commander Stamets that he thought he had the measure of before him now. 

“I need you to turn off your personal display,” his CMO said, approaching the bed. 

“No you don’t,” Stamets said without looking up or stopping his work.

“I think you’ll find,” Charles said, pushing away from the wall to intervene in the impending showdown. “That it’s easier to follow the requests of the medical team, otherwise they just make them orders.” His arrival did seem to break through Stamets’ almost manic focus;

“Admiral,” he greeted him, his hands stilling.

“What is it that’s so important that you can’t let my medics do their job?”

“We need to build another spore drive.” Charles raised an eyebrow.

“I was under the impression that was even more complicated than it sounds, otherwise we would have a fleet of them already.”

“I’m the bit we haven’t figured out how to replicate yet. I need to get these components into production, and we need to start farming the mushroom spores.” He flicked the specs into the air.

“Lieutenant Commander,” he warned. “This is a massive job, it’s not something we’re going to be able to do in the next twelve hours.”

“We have to. We have to get out there, get them back.”

“Discovery is missing the key component to the spore drive. Without you, they can’t jump and therefore we can chase them down with conventional methods.”

“Yes and three members of Discovery’s crew are currently dying in the Veruban Nebula. Captain Saru, Doctor Culber, Adira - the only way we can get to them in time is to have access to a spore drive. You can chase down Discovery but I won’t sit here to be unnecessarily poked and prodded when there is something I could do to try and bring them home.”

Charles knew about the stranded crew, knew intellectually that it was almost inevitably too late for them but as he had advised Saru recently, sometimes you had to push the limits for the sake of your crew.

“I can’t pull a whole ship from the front,” he began, looking at the resources Stamets’ plans required.   
“I think I can make it work on a type 23 shuttle.”

“Ok, do what you need to. I’ll assign a shuttle, someone from the engineering core and the biological sciences to liaise with you. But!” he interrupted whatever it was that the other man was about to say. “You will follow the requests of the medical personnel. Is that understood?”

“Thank you, Admiral,” Stamets said, holding his gaze with those unnervingly pale eyes. Charles realised that the scientist was well aware of how much of a hale mary, this was but the hope seemed to be the only thing keeping him together. He nodded in response, before turning and leaving the medics to take charge of their patient again. This whole incident was a shit show already, what was a little reckless use of resources if there was even a whisper of a chance that they could save some more souls.

**Author's Note:**

> There is nothing so satisfying to me as an episode that makes me immediately want to start writing. I hope you enjoy this little interlude and I'd love to hear your thoughts.
> 
> LHAx  
> @LHA_again


End file.
